Spirituality

[Starman]

janielee, Blessings to you my friend; you are a warrior seeker of truth. In a forum like this people are coming from a lot of varying internal places; some are posting what they think, from their thoughts, some are posting what they feel, from their emotional passion, and some are posting from a deep sense of inner quiet, and other places.

No judgment intended, no better or worst, although one person talking from their thoughts and another person talking from their feelings can cause and incongruity in the conversation. I am still learning not to grab hold of things with my mind if I disagree with them.

From a very quiet space within, we can allow words to pass right through us. We don’t have to identify with words. It is only when we identify with certain words that we grab hold of them with our mind and take them personally.

Critically thinking is a great tool for analysis, but in my opinion it is not needed for a spiritually focused life. Spirituality requires and astute simple awareness. Critical analysis is and intricate elaboration, but in spirituality the more you elaborate the further away from it you get.

Spirituality is as simple as silence. But there is a need for discrimination, pros and cons, in this world. As multidimensional beings we are engaged in a balancing act. What I see here is all part of the learning process, sometimes painful and sometimes joy-filled. Back in the 1980’s when the internet first became public, people were so polite to each other.

Back then all they had were “bulletin boards” that people would post on. With the evolution of the internet came cyber-bullying and other disturbing behavior. But there are still places on the net where people come to share love, like they do here, nonetheless we also have our detractors as well.

Nothing can get us unless we open up to it and allow it to come in. We all need to know how to protect ourselves, and even more importantly, protect our spiritual experience. We can not allow ourselves to become a prisoner of what other people think when we have divine knowledge, wisdom, and guidance, right within us. This forum, right here, right now, is and excellent training round.

Peace

Thank you so much, Starman. I'm honored and blessed by your Light and your words. I have been .. feeling very peaceful today, like there is extra Light in and of this world. I remember, Starman, past times like this - I didn't understand them back then, perhaps I never will, but I know I am closer to my own heart than I have been for a long, long time. I am honored and blessed by the sharings of so many, so many.

Thank you again for your help and support , and presence here.

JL

Originally Posted by Starman

In a forum like this people are coming from a lot of varying internal places; some are posting what they think, from their thoughts, some are posting what they feel, from their emotional passion, and some are posting from a deep sense of inner quiet, and other places.

No judgment intended, no better or worst, although one person talking from their thoughts and another person talking from their feelings can cause and incongruity in the conversation. I am still learning not to grab hold of things with my mind if I disagree with them.

From a very quiet space within, we can allow words to pass right through us. We don’t have to identify with words. It is only when we identify with certain words that we grab hold of them with our mind and take them personally.

Critically thinking is a great tool for analysis, but in my opinion it is not needed for a spiritually focused life. Spirituality requires and astute simple awareness. Critical analysis is and intricate elaboration, but in spirituality the more you elaborate the further away from it you get.

Spirituality is as simple as silence. But there is a need for discrimination, pros and cons, in this world. As multidimensional beings we are engaged in a balancing act. What I see here is all part of the learning process, sometimes painful and sometimes joy-filled. Back in the 1980’s when the internet first became public, people were so polite to each other.

Back then all they had were “bulletin boards” that people would post on. With the evolution of the internet came cyber-bullying and other disturbing behavior. But there are still places on the net where people come to share love, like they do here, nonetheless we also have our detractors as well.

Nothing can get us unless we open up to it and allow it to come in. We all need to know how to protect ourselves, and even more importantly, protect our spiritual experience. We can not allow ourselves to become a prisoner of what other people think when we have divine knowledge, wisdom, and guidance, right within us. This forum, right here, right now, is and excellent training round.

Peace

Quoted for clarity and accuracy.

JL

[A human Being]

Funnily enough, a spiritual blog I've long been subscribed to posed the question today, 'What Is Spirituality?' Just wanted to share the link in the hope that others might find it useful (don't worry, it's not very long).

Thank you, dear friend

[A human Being]

You're welcome

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

Label/no label , judgement/no judgement - people can very well understand it and its no rocket science .

I know that i or u can not know everything in life due to our inherently limited experiences and education and vastness of life. My sensibilities are not weak to get offended or weakened with baseless /illogical derivations and conclusions others . It was for your feedback that people get what u convey. You may continue with ur beliefs .

It's not about labels, it's about people who don't understand and when it comes to mental health and Spirituality specifically, few even want to think about it. There's a difference between a label and a diagnosis.

I've worked in mental health, so I don't need beliefs or opinion in this respect.

What often happens in the Spirituality vs mental health debate is that people with nothing more than an opinion become experts in mental health, and they're so expert they don't realise how ridiculous what they're saying is. If someone has no clue about what constitutes mental health, how do they know they're not labelling a mental health issue as Spirituality? It wouldn't be the first time that's happened. And regardless of how Spiritual anyone wants to call themselves, if they think about Spirituality then it's being processed by what's in their noggin.

Originally Posted by HITESH SHAH

I view spirituality as having cause /effect relationship howsoever weak/feeble. And accordingly i consider it science. There are many who may not agree with it . That's ok to me. It's not necessary for every one to have same beliefs.

There comes a time when it's not about beliefs any more, human nature always exerts itself.

Spirituality has neither cause nor effect, people have the cause and effect and it begins with intention. It's called kamma-vipaka or the 'results of intention'. People are either pre-disposed to Spirituality and often their inner self is a reflection of that Spirituality. People with different thinking patterns can have different beliefs because of the way their brains/minds process information, genetics plays its part as the so-called 'lizard brain' does its survival thing and filters information, often the survival part is people's personal ivory towers or cognitive dissonance. Spirituality is the context those changes take place, they certainly don't 'drive' them. You don't have to believe me, you just have to ask yourself what you get out of Spirituality and when you do that you'll understand what drives you.

Cause and effect is karma, the original Sanskrit meaning was simply 'cause' and later along the way 'effect' was added. It's been termed as "Newtonian Spirituality" because of its 'mechanical' nature'. What's talked about today in the forums as karma isn't, what people are talking about is a 'version' of kamma-vipaka. Kamma is intention and kamma-vipaka is the 'results' of that intention. Being Spiritual doesn't earn you brownie points, the intention and reasons behind it makes the difference.

[Moon fairy tarot]

Yes,I am psychic reader and I'm very happy what i do,it doesn't matter how it looks like you should have the determination! Blessed be

[Jyotir]

This is fundamental to any such discussion but because of its momentous import to human development, also why so frequent, repetitive, and fraught with controversy and consternation:

In self-conscious human beings, spirituality is the deliberate use of the intelligent will to concentrate and accelerate as a personal transformation, the general process in Nature of a progressive evolution of consciousness ...which eventually leads to “God-realization”, “Self-realization”, etc., e.g., the permanent conscious self-awareness or native cognition of True Identity, True Self, Truth-Consciousness, which is normally obscured by a conditional ignorance or ignorant cognition within the physical reality.

- - - - - -

Subsidiary discussions may include:

What is awakening?
The differences between religion and spirituality
The qualified notion that “everything is spiritual”
Limitations of ego (separative cognition)
The structural or inherent common difficulties of practice
The type and effectiveness of various methods of practice

Taking the last item - type and effectiveness of various methods - as an example:

There are obviously many variations of approach to this conscious deliberate process of yoga sadhana (spiritual practice), considerations of which would need to include whether any particular approach is evidently effective in providing actual progressive transformation. This is something well established by precedent in historical tradition, but doesn‘t preclude evolutionary changes that adapt to current needs accordingly.

The 3 most common paths or yogas which in actual practice may overlap, ebb and flow in dominance are:

devotion (bhakti),
wisdom/discrimination (jnana), and
work/service (karma).

Prayer and meditation are usually considered adjuncts to all 3 or may be a dominant practice in and of itself.

None of the difficulties, deficiencies, or failures related to the subsidiary topics should be equivocated or conflated with any attempted negation or invalidation of the general fundamental principle stated at the outset, the misguided attempts of which unfortunately constitute ~90% of the discussion here, usually based on the contrived primacy ignorant opinion which is itself based on an incapacity or unwillingness to respond to the inner awakening - except by an often intellectually reasoned summary rejection. Yet this is a common problem in human beings who are predominantly mental.

All discussion about the supposed invalidity of spirituality/spiritual practice in principle (iow, not the relative efficacy of any particular approach, particularly in the case of failed approximations to ideals, often conflated or confused with the former), is usually from a limited mental/intellectual pov - itself a substantial problem that must be transcended in spiritual work, and why this issue exists as often reduced to a popular rational materialist orientation; the repudiation of archaic organized religion as representing a false exclusive binary of “old superstitious religious authoritarianism” -- VS./OR -- atheism/rational materialism, etc. - not the only choice - is based on poor reason, false premise, poor observation, distortion, evasion, prevarication, worst case example, the cynical proposition that temporary failure or approximations invalidate the ideal, are all usually energetically derived from a personal fear or insecurity about confronting the loss of ego sovereignty, the personal “will”, the prerogatives and preferences of ego / mind, which are seen as constituting the exclusive determinant and purpose of human life - orientations which are indicative of the pre-awakened or newly awakened state.

In the previous unawakened or significantly, recently or partially awakened, the resistance, denial, defiance to newly discovered inner necessity, yet rejected, the resistance of ego/mind to the genuinely spiritual direction post awakening, may demonstrate accordingly as oscillation and confusion over many lives.

~ J

[ZainMd]

Spiritual journey is lives changing experience. What is paradox and frightening for some. This journey cannot be embarked with a glass full to the brim, it need to be poured out. Because spiritual journey doesn't make sense intellectually to the bodymind. What can be written about it can easily get misconstrued. The reason is, what one described as blissfulness, calmness, joyfulness,love and so on are just words in describing the experience felt. On it own, there are no words other than feeling gratefullness Grace by His unconditional love.